I. Fediverse definition:
“Fediverse” has been around since 2008. To put it another way “Fediverse” (a combination of “federation” and “universe”) is the term for a federated social network of autonomous servers (including social networks, microblogging, blogs, websites, and file storage).
Users can create an identity on any server. Users who have a Fediverse identity can publish text and multimedia, as well as follow the postings of other Fediverse users. Users can also share files (video, music, text, and other types) and let others edit them (such as calendars and contacts).
When developing or using a web service, we are faced with the same question.
The vast majority of well-known web services are organized in a centralized manner. For example, Twitter and Netflix store all of their data on their own servers (or servers leased from a third party, such as Amazon), allowing them complete control over who can access it and how.
Because of Fediverse’s open and interoperable nature, Fediverse will give you a specific kind of area that will allow you to quickly integrate data amongst projects that are part of it.
If you host your own data, you even have the option of owning it. Not only that, you get to keep the code. The Fediverse project is free and open source. You can run a test on the software to make sure it isn’t doing anything bad in the background. This reduces the chances that someone will record, compile, and analyze everything you say and do. Doesn’t it sound fantastic?
II. Why did Bitcity-z decide to go the Fediversefi route?
1.The Fediverse is the ensemble of federated servers that are used for web publishing.
To understand the concept of federation, the best analogy I’ve encountered is email. Whether you have email account – Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo etc. You can send an email to any person regardless of what kind of account they have, even if they’re not on the same platform.
This is not the case with popular social media accounts. You can’t like a Tweet through your Facebook account. You can’t comment on a YouTube video using your Instagram account.
Federation means Fediverse platforms can interact in these ways. If you create a Mastodon account (a Fediverse Twitter alternative), you can like a post on Friendica (a Fediverse Facebook alternative). With that same Mastodon account, you can follow accounts on and watch videos on PeerTube (YouTube alternative) and follow accounts on and view photos on Pixelfed (Instagram alternative).
2. Fediverse platforms are more transparent.
Facebook can promise to improve but, ultimately, we will never be able to confirm whether these changes are reflected as the software is not open source.
As free and open-source software(FOSS), Fediverse platforms such as Mastodon, Bitcityz have source code that can be inspected and scrutinised. This allows people to more clearly understand what happens under the hood without the need to resort to reverse engineering.
3. Fediverse platforms are (more) free.
Although Facebook users don’t need to pay monthly fees, they are actually paying with their data. As argued by media theorist Douglas Rushkoff, “we are not the customers of Facebook, we are the product”.
Because Fediverse platforms are not built for advertising, they don’t need to use manipulative algorithms made to maximise your time on the platform even at the expense of promoting content that disinforms, polarises, or extremises. They don’t have to resort to targeted advertising
4. Fediverse platforms are decentralised.
Because it’s more transparent, interconnected, free, and decentralised, it’s also more democratic. And these values are quite needed, especially with the impact corporate social media has been making (and continues to make) on democracy.